Delhi BJP spokesperson Poonam Azad, wife of suspended BJP MP and former cricketer Kirti Azad, is likely to join the Aam Aadmi Party. The politician, who is one of the representatives of the Poorvanchal community in the city, will resign from the BJP soon and join the AAP, according to sources close to Ms Azad.
The three-time BJP national executive member feels she is being targeted in the party after her husband highlighted corruption cases in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), according to the sources.
“Despite being one of biggest faces of Poorvanchal in the national capital, Ms Azad has been marginalised in the party for some years despite being a three-time member of the BJP national executive,” the sources said.
The sources claimed despite serving the BJP for around 25 years, the couple feels that they have been denied positions they deserve in the party. “Party high command refused Delhi Assembly ticket to Ms Azad on last three occasions, ignoring her appeal among voters from Poorvanchal,” the sources added.
Six months ago, according to the sources, Ms Azad was supposed to be appointed as a member of the censor board, but was denied nomination. The BJP leadership had objected to her husband’s continuously raising the DDCA issue even after BJP president Amit Shah’s intervention.
Ms Azad, daughter-in-law of senior Congress leader and former Bihar chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad, will join the AAP with an eye on the next year’s Punjab Assembly and Delhi civic elections. “She believes that apart from next year’s civic polls in the national capital where she can be helpful to the AAP, she can also aid the party in Punjab. Large number of Sikhs and Punjabis migrated to Punjab during ‘jungle raj’ of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi and Ms Azad will be helpful to the AAP in connecting with these people,” said a source close to the Azad family.
Ms Azad’s decision to join the AAP comes just after cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had represented Amritsar in the Lok Sabha between 2004 and 2014 as the BJP MP, resigned from the Rajya Sabha. Sources close to Mr Sidhu have already indicated that the 52-year-old politician is likely to join the AAP.
